شکار نیمه‌شب (چرخه سفاردیک ۲)

From Publishers Weekly Acts of cruelty and bigotry and a shocking betrayal propel thiscolorful if overstuffed historical novel by Zimler (The Last Kabbalistof Lisbon), set in 18th- and 19th-century Portugal. John Zarco Stewartis the son of a Scotsman and, through his mother, is descended fromconverted Jews called Marranos who have kept their identity a secretsince the Spanish Inquisition. John grows up in the city of Portounaware of his true heritage until a necromancer curses him when he isnine. In the same year, his best friend drowns before his eyes, and heis only comforted when his father returns from a trip to Africa with aBushman called Midnight, a healer and freed slave who teaches Johnmany things as he grows into manhood. But Midnight, too, meets aviolent end, and when John is 16, Napoleon's armies invade Portugaland John's father is killed defending Porto. Years after the war, Johndiscovers that his father, who he believed was a hero, had committedan unthinkable act of treachery. In attempting to atone for hisfather's misdeed, John travels from Portugal to England thenantebellum America. Zimler packs his tale with exotic detail,describing Porto's bird markets, plantation life in South Carolina andthe lives of Jews in hiding. Though his prose style is somewhat stiffas he attempts to echo 1800s speech patterns (" `Close your goddamnedsnout and run, you little mole!' ") and many of the events in thestory are melodramatic, the narrative has a vintage flavor thatbecomes absorbing. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Zimler, author of the unforgettable Last Kabbalist of Lisbon (1998), about the fourteenth-century massacre of Jews in Portugal, tackles an even more ambitious historical epic this time, beginning in Portugal in the eighteenth century and moving, over the next 25 years, to London, South Carolina, and New York. There are really two novels here, both compelling on their own but awkwardly connected. The first is the story of John Marco Stewart's coming-of-age in Portugal, as he learns of his Jewish heritage (he's related to the hero of Last Kabbalist) and must endure another wave of Christian persecution. The second, detailing Stewart's search for his childhood friend, an African Bushman called Midnight who is sold into slavery, becomes a Roots- like look at the horrors of plantation life in South Carolina. Zimler might have been better off saving the slavery story for its own book, but he remains a superbly talented historical novelist, capable of combining fascinating, broad-canvas glimpses of history with the most intimate portraits of the human heart in turmoil. Ilene Cooper Copyright В© American Library Association. All rights reserved From the internationally bestselling author of The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon comes a novel of incomparable scope and beauty that takes the reader on an epic journey from war-ravaged nineteenth-century Europe to antebellum America. A bereft child, a freed African slave, and the rich history of Portugal's secret Jews collide memorably in Richard Zimler's mesmerizing novel-a dazzling work of historical fiction played out against a backdrop of war and chaos that unforgettably mines the mysteries of devotion, betrayal, guilt, and forgiveness. Hunting Midnight At the dawn of the nineteenth century in Portugal, John Zarco Stewart is an impish child of hotheaded emotions and playful inquisitiveness, the unwitting inheritor of a faith shrouded in three hundred years of secrecy-for the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula have been in hiding since the Inquisition. But a season of loss and bitter discovery brings his innocence to an abrupt end. It is only the ministrations of a magical stranger, brought to Porto by his seafaring father, that restore his safety: Midnight, an African healer and freed slave, the man who will become John's greatest friend and determine the course of his destiny. When Napoleon's armies invade Portugal, violence again intrudes on John's fragile peace, and seals his passage into adulthood with another devastating loss. But from the wreckage comes revelation as he uncovers truths and lies hidden by the people he loved and trusted most, and discovers the act of unspeakable betrayal that destroyed his family-and his faith. And so his shattering quest begins as he travels to America, to hunt for hope in a land shackled by unforgivable sin. With stunning insight and an eye for rich historical detail-from the colorful marketplaces of Porto to the drowsy plantations of the American South, from the Judaism John discovers as a young man to the mystical Africa that Midnight conjures from his memories-in Hunting Midnight Richard Zimler has crafted a masterpiece. A Young Boy Forms A Friendship With An African Mystical Healer Called Midnight, Until A Betrayal Changes The Course Of John Zarco Stewart's Life, Sending Him From Africa To The Plantations Of America's Deep South. Richard Zimler. Historisk roman om det 19. århundredes hemmelige jøder i Portugal